By Josephine Reid
Pre-licensure nursing students can find a wide variety of scholarships to help cover the cost of earning an ADN or BSN to qualify for initial licensure. If you already hold an RN license, you’ll find scholarships specifically designed to help you advance by earning a post-licensure BSN or MSN. There are even scholarships and grants for research and postgraduate degree training.
Nursing scholarships are typically merit-based and are available from a variety of sources including the federal government, state and local governments, colleges, universities and technical/vocational schools, as well as private and professional associations.
There are also a large number of nursing scholarships that have been designed to benefit specific portions of the student population, such as minorities and returning students. Many available nursing scholarships, particularly those supported by federal and state governments, will be scholarship-for-service programs. These programs require scholarship recipients to commit to a predetermined time of service in an under-served community, or at a designated critical need facility.
A great sole resource for finding scholarships for nursing school can be found here. Other sources that can help nurses save on textbooks, medical scrubs and more include Good Call, the scholarship listings on Nurse.org, as well as Registered Nursing.org to name a few.
Grants for nursing education deduct some of the cost of attending nursing school. Grants are available for qualified students, with many grants specifically geared to people in certain geographic areas or for students of a particular racial or ethnic group or to students studying specialty fields of nursing. These are some of the many available grant programs for nursing students or registered nurses looking to further their education.
It's never too early or too late to look for scholarships. Other great scholarships for nurses include ENA Foundation scholarships, A Nurse I Am scholarship, FNSNA scholarships, and Nurses Educational Funds.
